4 Reasons Why You Need a Workplace Wellness Program
July 24, 2024 | Tags:
As a business, your employees' health and retention should be top priorities. These factors ensure the longevity of your company. But how can you increase employee health and well-being while maintaining healthcare costs? Offer a wellness program as part of your employee benefit package.
This can include resources to help your employees improve their nutrition and exercise habits, provide them preventive care incentives, help them quit smoking and more. Check out four reasons why workplace wellness programs are a great way to improve the health of your employees and your business.
1. Contain Healthcare Costs
It’s no secret – healthier employees lead to lower healthcare costs. Chronic conditions are major drivers of the nation’s $4.5 trillion annual healthcare costs, such as:
- Diabetes
- High blood pressure
- Obesity
- Cancer
Associated risk factors like smoking and physical inactivity also increase costs. However, a healthy lifestyle is the key to controlling or even preventing these risk factors.
When you provide your employees with wellness programs that incentivize positive behavior changes, your employees remain happy and healthy. By decreasing the occurrence of medical claims and chronic diseases, your business reduces substantial healthcare costs.
2. Reduce Absenteeism
Workplace absences greatly decrease when your employees are healthy. When you provide wellness resources for your employees and promote a health-positive work environment, you foster improvements for employee productivity and motivation, all while reducing health-related absenteeism.
3. Improve Mental Health
Wellness programs offer more than just mindful eating and exercise support. Mental health tools and resources are essential to providing your employees with fully integrated wellness coverage.
Conditions like stress, depression and anxiety can be just as detrimental to your employee’s health as physical illnesses, so it’s important to consider mental health support when choosing a wellness program.
4. Increase Employee Morale and Retention
Workplace wellness programs show your employees that you care for their well-being. They not only promote a culture of wellness, but also give your employees more incentive to stay at the company.
Consider including the option of offering monetary incentives or other rewards for healthy behaviors when you elect a wellness program to increase employee morale and participation.
5. Provide a Workplace Wellness Package for Your Employees Today
Medical Mutual can help you find the best wellness program to meet the needs of your employees and company. Wellness programs provide flexible, customized healthcare solutions to improve your employee’s health and cut your healthcare costs.